Print is dying – yet the tabloids still wield enormous political power

The printed British tabloid is in the twilight of its existence, with no prospects of a revival, and yet the residual power in its inky headlines has set the tone for this election campaign.

Like the stinger of a mortally wounded bee, the tabloid front page still has the capacity to wound. And so even with a huge lead in the polls, Keir Starmer fears the threat posed to Labour’s success by the Daily Mail and The Sun. At the age of 61 he has seen their influence over previous elections and his painfully cautious campaigning, shorn of policy ideas that might provoke game-changing tabloid attacks, is a direct consequence.

In turn, Rishi Sunak’s contrasting messaging around his “bold plans” is an attempt to feed those same tabloids with a slogan he hopes they will boost to marginal voters.

For younger generations who get their news from TikTok and Instagram and rarely set eyes on a printed paper let alone buy one, the idea that a dying medium is still calling the shots must be hard to comprehend.

After all, the signs of the demise of the printed tabloid are obvious. Last week, London’s Evening Standard, an institution only three years from its bicentennial anniversary, announced its reduction to a weekly product. A paper that sold for 50p until 2009, and was distributing almost a million free copies daily a decade ago, has become tissue-thin and may now have to change its name.

In a forthcoming book, The Newsmongers – A History of Tabloid Journalism (published 1 August), author Terry Kirby traces the decline of a format that has its origins in the sensationalist pamphlets of the 17th century. It was Alfred Harmsworth, founder of the Daily Mail, who first applied the term “tabloid” to journalism in 1900 to describe the new type of “small, portable and neatly indexed publication”.

For the ensuing century, tabloids were an immensely popular product that shaped and documented British society and its politics. But Kirby, a senior lecturer in journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London, thinks several national tabloids may shortly drop their daily print editions. The Daily Express and Daily Star, both published by the struggling Reach stable, are “really vulnerable” to becoming giveaways, handed out periodically as a brand promotional exercise, much like the Standard, he believes. I would add that Reach’s Sunday People, which sells only 55,000 copies and lacks an online brand profile, must be on borrowed time.

Bill Gates told me in a 2006 interview that print newspapers would survive until 2050 – and that remains a good shout. When Kirby began researching his book five years ago, his publishers were anticipating one of the tabloids would have folded by now. That has not happened.

The Daily Mail still sells 700,000 copies a day and Kirby says it will be the last paper on the newsstand. The Sun no longer publishes its sales figure and its future will depend on whether News Corp chairman Lachlan Murdoch replicates the love for the title of his father, Rupert. Daily Mirror sales have fallen to 234,600, in a market which leans decidedly to the right.

The i – still the only title to never tell its readers how to vote – sells 126,000, and 170,000 at weekends.

News publishers argue that their future existence is underpinned by their successful transition to digital versions that have extended their reach to vast audiences unimaginable even in the heyday of hot metal.

The online editions of the Mail and The Sun are not yet an obvious threat to a Starmer victory. Mail Online, with a much broader constituency than the Daily Mail, entered the weekend with its home page leading on the marriage of Rod Stewart’s son. The Sun online focused on a split between King Charles and Prince Andrew. Readers might have forgotten there is an election in a month’s time.

But print front-page splashes invariably set the news agenda for broadcasters and provide the source material for so much debate on social channels. “It’s osmosis,” says Kirby of the tabloid influence over news. “It permeates through into the general discourse on social media.”

The Sun might appear bored by the prospect of a summer election – “Oh ballots!” was its response to the snap call– but when it endorses a party it will be big news everywhere. The Daily Mail, unflinchingly pro-Tory, is constantly looking for Labour to make a misstep, just as it tried to cook up scandals over Starmer’s lockdown curry in 2021 and Angela Rayner’s house sale.

“The Tory press has the capacity to completely monster Starmer if he makes one false move,” says Kirby. “He is petrified of that and so the power of the tabloids remains.”